Monthly Archives: August 2015

Short returns to winning ways

The Snetterton 200 Circuit hosted rounds 13 and 14 of the 5 Club Racing MX5 Championship. After not winning any of the three races at Anglesey, Ben Short was looking for success. However, Anglesey winners Will Blackwell-Chambers and James Rogers would be looking for more.

Qualifying

Short started his weekend how he was hoping to go on. He set a time of 1:29.98 which gave him pole position and was over half a second faster than anybody else.

Blackwell-Chambers, Rogers and Jack Sycamore were all able to go within a second of Short’s time though.

Sebastien Fisher was just outside of a second in fifth and had a good margin on Adam Bessell, who completed the top 6.

Race 1

Short and Blackwell-Chambers immediately broke away from the pack and had a fairly easy race to make a BS Motorsport 1-2. Short won it by six seconds with Blackwell-Chambers nearly ten seconds ahead of the rest.

The battle for third was a complete opposite with battling throughout all ten laps. Kris Greatrex, who only started eighth, was third by the end of the opening lap thanks to a magnificent start.

His brother Jason, who started tenth, only took few laps to be behind him after he passed Sycamore for fourth.

Jason then passed his brother in a great move at Coram on lap six. Kris Greatrex also lost out to James Rogers on the ninth lap. Rogers had fallen to seventh in the early stages. Greatrex did get back through before the end to finish behind brother, Jason.

Rogers ended up fifth with Sycamore and Fisher closely behind. Just 1.5 seconds separated third to seventh at the flag after their fantastic battle throughout the race.

Bessell was involved in that battle but fell away on the last couple of laps so only finished in a lonely eighth.

Daniel Stewart held off the attentions of Oliver Allwood and Adam Read to finish in ninth.

Ben Hancy was involved in their battle but fell back at mid-distance and only could manage 13th.

Leach just beat Hancy after starting at the back of the grid due to losing his qualifying times for exceeding track limits. Scott Aprigliano passed Grahame McMurchie on lap eighth to take 14th. Ian Tomlinson was next up and beat Nick Le Doyen, Marcus Bailey and Tom Pughe who just finished half a second apart.

Race 2

Short and Blackwell-Chambers took another easy 1-2 but weren’t quite so far in front as the opening race. 2.6 seconds was Short’s winning margin.

Rogers passed Kris Greatrex for third on lap six at Riches and was able to put a gap on the battle behind him so was able to finish on the third step of the podium.

Kris Greatrex maintained a gap Jason to take fourth with Stewart, Bessell, Allwood and Fisher close behind.

Jason Greatrex was behind Stewart heading on to the final lap but regained fifth by the chequered flag. Allwood also passed Fisher on the last lap. Fifth to eighth finished just 1.5 seconds apart.

Sycamore was involved in that battle but spun at Chapman Curve. He recovered to eleventh behind Leach.

Aprigliano passed Matthew Short, who started 22nd, on the final lap to take twelfth.

Pughe, McMurchie, Bailey and Tomlinson finished close behind.

Samuel Haggarty took 18th ahead of Hancy, who spun to last on the opening lap.

Ben Short has now won eleven races this season, so is in the box seat to win the championship but still cannot afford a bad weekend as his team-mate Will Blackwell-Chambers is always consistent and usually on the podium.

The championship heads to Belgium next for a round at Spa-Francorchamps, where 5club will be assembling the largest grid of racing Mx5’s the world has ever seen.(probably) Drivers from as far afield as Australia are coming to be part of it.